Human rights abuses as well as ethnic and religious violence in Indonesia

Friday, June 29, 2007

✒

"OK, the rule is, you can (make love to) an elephant if you want to, but if you do, you can't cover the circus."

-- A.M. Rosenthal (1922-2006)

Sapariah, Norman and me visited Borobudur this June. Borobudur is a ninth century Buddhist Mahayana monument. It was abandoned following the 14th century decline of Buddhist and Hindu kingdoms in Java, and the Javanese conversion to Islam. It was rediscovered in 1814 by Sir Thomas Raffles, the British ruler of Java. Daoed Joesoef, an Acehnese scholar, took the initiative to lobby Unesco and to restore Borobudur between 1975 and 1982.